He was lost. Lost in deep pools of the darkest blue. The pupils of her dark eyes nearly blended in with the dark blue. Against her alabaster skin, her eyes stood out.
He took a moment to take in her other features. Her cheeks were tinted a light pink, her lips shiny, reflecting the light streaming in through the train window. Her hair fell over one shoulder; there were shimmering things dangling from her ears, also shiny from the sunlight. Her top was dark blue, nearly the same color as her eyes, and came down in a low 'v' across her chest, the top of a gray shirt just visible between the gap. There was a brown belt slung around her waist over her tops, and her light denim jeans were tucked into oddly familiar boots.
George knew those boots.
He tried to remember where he'd seen those boots from, but the only thing he could wrap his mind around was that the girl from his dreams, the girl he'd literally dreamed about all damn summer, was sitting right in front of him.
And he was staring at her like a fool.
He dragged his gaze back up to her face and noticed one neatly arched eyebrow had risen, her shiny lips quirked in a smirk. Normally, George Weasley had no problem talking to girls. At this point, he would shoot her a lop-sided grin that the girls usually went gah-gah over, say something clever and charming, and have her eating out of the palm of his hand before the train even left the station.
But he was in uncharted territory now. He fought for words to say but still he stood, sputtering. Trying to put two words together. 'Hel-lo.' How hard is that? 'Hel-lo.' Or hell, 'Hi' would even work.
His brain had finally started working and he'd decided what he was going to say. A simple 'hi' would suffice. He'd even opened his mouth to say it, but someone cleared their throat, loudly, behind him. He turned to find another unfamiliar blonde girl looking back at him. She had lighter eyes, and straight hair, but she was clearly related to the girl he'd been gawking at ten seconds earlier.
"Excuse me," the new girl muttered softly, shifting her eyes to the compartment door he was halfway in and halfway out of.
George nodded and stepped out of the way. The girl walked in and the compartment door closed with a soft, but firm, 'snap.' George let out a long breath and ran a hand through his short red hair, silently cursing his mum for cutting it. He shook his head and stepped across the hall to join his friends.
"Ge-orge!"
George's eyes snapped up and noticed Alicia Spinnet standing in front of him. He grinned, not even realizing he'd been staring off into space.
"What's with you today?" She asked as she sat on the bench opposite him, sandwiching herself between Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for an answer.
"Just thinking."
The people in the compartment gave a collective snort and then they burst out laughing. George felt indignant and mentioned so. That just made the people surrounding him laugh louder and harder.
After they had taken the time to calm down, Angelina launched into a story about her holiday to Rome, Italy. George tuned her out, staring out the window of the train at the passing scenery. The landscape flew by at dizzying speed and he closed his eyes to fight off a wave of nausea.
He turned back and tried to listen as Angelina talked about some museum she'd been to, her hands waving animatedly, when something caught his eye out the compartment door.
The girl he'd been staring at earlier had just left her compartment. She had a small duffel bag in her hand and seemed to be heading towards the loo. His eyes turned back to the girls on the opposite bench.
"I'm going to go change," he said suddenly.
Angelina stopped talking and everyone turned to him. Instead of saying anything, he grabbed his own bag and forced his way over his friends and twin and headed out into the hall. He made his way to the boys' loo slowly, hoping to catch a glimpse of her leaving. When he didn't see her, he changed quickly and then walked back to the compartment slowly.
Reaching his compartment, he turned to look at the one opposite his and found it empty. He sighed and opened the door to his, finding only his brother and Lee, already in their uniforms. Fred's scarlet and gold tie was tied, but left loosely hanging around his neck and Lee's was untied.
"We've got a bunch of orders to fill, bro," Fred mentioned, holding out a stack of parchment. It was their order forms for their owl-order business. "Let's get a jump on it now so we don't have as much to do tonight."
The rest of the ride to Hogwarts was spent separating their merchandise into boxes and sealing them up. They would take them to the owlery later that night after the Welcoming Feast.
The train began to slow and they packed up their stuff. He caught the looks of apprehension on faces of small students as he made his way off the train behind Fred. "I say this every year, and this year will be the last. We were never that small, were we?" Lee pushed at his shoulder impatiently.
He waited for his friends to all get off the train and then they found a carriage. The friends continued to catch up, each one telling stories of their Summer Holidays, during their carriage ride to Hogwarts. He shuddered at a particularly gruesome story about a sheep and a levitation spell from Katie (which had happened on a trip to Ireland, and "was entirely my sister's fault.")
George heaved himself out of the carriage and followed his twin and his girlfriend up the steps and into the castle, taking a right and heading straight into the Great Hall. The decorations were the same as every year: each house (Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor) flag was suspended in the air above a designated table, and thousands of candles, high above their heads, lit the entire room. The ceiling above them enchanted to look exactly like the night sky, was dark with swirling gray clouds punctuated by the light of a full moon.
The group of six made their way across the Great Hall to the Gryffindor table and sat down near the middle of the long table. George noted his brother, Ron, and Hermione and Harry were sitting just three people down.
Fred sat next to him, pulling Angelina onto the bench next to him, and Katie, Alicia, and Lee sat across from them. Fred leaned over and they began discussing ideas for a hat that makes your head disappear.
They were still lost in discussion when the first years were ushered in and didn't notice the spattering of whispering. The sorting hat sang a new song, about unity between houses, but the song was lost to them.
The hat started spouting off names. He briefly heard "Abercrombie, Anna" become a Hufflepuff before he was lost in conversation again. "Just need to figure out the charms used on an invisibility cloak. Recon it'll be in a textbook or will we need to spend some time in the library?" Fred spoke in a hushed whisper, leaning close to George.
"Reckon we should check both. School books, first, though. We can do that tonight…"
A motion caught George's eye and instead of his eyes moving up to the center of the Great Hall where the sorting was taking place, he turned his head to Angelina, who had stood and was waving her arms in the air wildly. Fred had noticed, too, and looked at his girlfriend strangely. Other people at the table were looking at her like she'd lost her mind. Then Alicia stood and began waving as well. George turned to where Angelina was looking and saw the girl from the train walking timidly towards their table.
She moved to the opposite side and then, to his surprise (or not since Angelina had waved her over so…enthusiastically), sat directly across from him where Lee had moved down to make space between him and Alicia. George gulped loudly. Angelina had sat down now, and they were all watching the rest of the sorting. He kept his eyes on the girl in front of him, and she smiled.
"Alicia Spinnet," she reached out her hand to the new girl and shook it just as the food arrived in front of them and people began digging in.
"Lee Jordan."
They went around their group introducing themselves, and finally it came to George. "George Weasley," he near whispered and then caught himself. He rolled his eyes at himself, cleared his throat, and repeated it louder.
"Elsa," she nodded to all of them. "Elsa Poe."
"She's going to be so pissed…" Elsa said, looking over her shoulder. George briefly wondered what she was talking about, but he didn't have to wonder long, because Katie asked.
"Who is?"
"My sister. She was sorted into Ravenclaw. She really wanted us to be together," she shrugged and then put another heaping bite of roast on her fork and stuffed it in her mouth.
George grinned. It was her second plateful.
This girl can eat!
"I'm actually pretty surprised I was sorted into Gryffindor. There's really not a brave bone in my body. I was thinking I'm more of a Hufflepuff…" she muttered after swallowing.
"Well, the hat is never wrong…"
"So you have a sister? Is she your twin? The resemblance between you is uncanny…" That was Lee and he had placed his hand on her arm. George scowled.
Good, at least she has the grace to look uncomfortable. I'll have to have a talk with Lee later…
"Er, kind of."
Kind of? How can you kind of have a twin?
"What I mean is," she started, noticing the confused looks, "we're really a lot alike, but I'm two years older. We jokingly refer to ourselves as the only set of twins born two years apart. I guess, not anymore right?"
"So, you're a seventh year?" She nodded, dragging her fork once more over the plate to finish off the gravy that was left, before dropping the fork back on the plate.
"Yes. She's in sixth year, though."
"How did that happen?" Angelina crossed her arms on the table in front of her and leaned on them, staring at her.
"It's complicated…has to do a lot with the fact that we were home schooled by our mum and she wanted to keep us close academically…"
"Give the girl some room to breathe, Angel, she's already sharing your dorm. You guys can stay up all night gossiping," Fred suggested, kissing her sloppily on the cheek. George groaned.
"Unlike you, I need to get my beauty sleep."
"That's right. I'm beautiful how I am." He waggled his eyebrows at her and threw his arm over her shoulder. She leaned into his embrace.
"Nope. You're just hopeless."
He sat back, clutching his hands to his chest above his heart. "Angel…my life…my love…that hurt!"
She merely giggled at him and kissed his cheek. George blanched. Public displays of affection were only okay (in his book) if they were happening to him.
Dessert was served and the noise level in the great hall dropped again. George had two servings of Treacle Tart, smiling into his plate when Elsa took seconds as well. What? She's sitting right across from me, it's not like I can help looking at her…
Everyone turned as Dumbledore climbed to his feet. He gave his usual speech about the forest on the grounds being forbidden to all students, and reminded everyone (for the four hundred and sixty-second time, according to Filch) that there was to be no magic in the corridors and an extensive list of other rules could be found on Filch's office door.
George deftly listened as he announce Professor Grubbly-Plank as the stand-in Care of Magical Creatures Professor, and instead moved his eyes a bit further down the table. A mousy-brown haired witch wearing entirely too much pink sat a few spaces down from Dumbledore, a smug smirk on her face. He introduced her as "Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
George chuckled when she interrupted Dumbledore with a loud clearing of her throat, and then she stood, preparing to make a speech.
"She just doesn't understand how it's done here," he heard muttered from a few spaces down, but his eyes stayed locked on the woman, a feeling of imparting doom settling on his shoulders.
"Ooh, I love her cardigan," Alicia muttered sarcastically from across the table, causing a few Gryffindors to snicker. "I wonder if she'll let me barrow it."
"You'd probably drown in it," Katie whispered to her, causing more giggles.
She droned on about the Ministry of Magic and the types of magic deemed suitable to learn, and George rolled his eyes, his elbow coming up to rest on the table, his cheek on his outstretched palm. He tuned her out, gazing up at the candles above him.
As they stood to leave, he caught the gist of what this Umbridge had said from Hermione. "It means," she snapped, unaware she was being overheard. "That the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts."
Lee, Katie, and Alicia were walking in front, and Fred and Angelina were right behind them. George fell into step beside Elsa as they began to climb their way to the seventh floor.
"What's with all the bloody stairs?" he heard her mutter under her breath. He snorted, and she shot him a look. "What?"
"Nothing," he answered, still smirking. "Just be careful. They like to change on you."
"Change? As in, move?"
"Yep. And there's one particular on, with a vanishing step that you have to jump. If you don't, you fall in and it's particularly hard to get out."
"And you've experienced this?"
"Ha ha. No. But Alicia was coming up from dinner alone one night and forgot to jump it and waited for an hour for someone to help her out. She swore she felt something sniffing at her foot."
"Oh," she smiled sheepishly and giggled.
They climbed on in silence, and when they reached the seventh floor, the group was nearly out of breath. "A bit out of shape, are we Weasley?" Angelina turned to George, who shrugged. "Am I going to have to call extra practices just to whip your ass back into manageable fitness?" He shrugged again and they made their way to the portrait of the fat lady. It was already open and students were climbing into it.
"How did the first years beat us? Don't they usually have a tour or something?" Fred asked, following in the last first year.
As George entered, he saw Ron and Hermione in the center of the pack of kids. Ron looked bored, and yawned, as Hermione motioned to the staircases and around the common room, talking loudly.
"Do you reckon we should do it now?" Fred was suddenly right behind him and he jumped. "Jumpy?"
"Shut it. The sooner the better, I say," he answered Fred's question, and Fred pulled out a piece of parchment, pinning it above a poster announcing the date of the first Hogsmeade weekend.
"Reckon you'll have a date?" Fred nudged George, who looked at him questioningly. He lifted the parchment he'd just posted and let George read over the notice. He shrugged.
"I don't see why not." He eyed the group of girls that had clambered in through the portrait hole behind them.
"You should take Elsa…show her around Hogsmeade…take her to Madame Puddifoots…"
"Oi, I thought we were supposed to take the mickey out of other people, not each other!"
"Right."
"Come on. We should show you the dorm!" Alicia suggested, taking Elsa by the hand and tugging on her arm. She followed the three girls to the staircase and disappeared up it.
George rolled his eyes, but he followed Fred and Lee up the stairs to their own dorm. Fred grabbed a large orange box out of his trunk and motioned for George and Lee to follow him. They headed down the stairs and into the common room. It was nearly deserted, save for Ron, Hermione, Harry, and a few groups of student scattered throughout.
As they headed out of the common room, George swore he heard, "Better be back before curfew," and something about being taken seriously from where the infamous trio were sitting. He frowned, hoping Hermione wouldn't be a problem this year.
They walked quietly through the castle. It wasn't past curfew, but they were cutting it close. They rushed through the castle to the West Tower and entered the owlery. Fred set the big box down on the owl-dropping strewn floor, and George stepped towards it, something crunching beneath his feet.
He looked down and lifted his foot, watching tiny pieces of bone fall from the bottom of his shoe and land soundlessly on the floor. "Gross," Lee muttered.
"Need some mouse bones, Freddie?"
"Eh," he shrugged. He tore open the box and inside lay about twenty brightly colored smaller boxes. "We might want to do this slowly. We don't want a bunch of owls flying out of here all at once…"
It took nearly half an hour to get all of the packages sent out. It was well after curfew by the time they made their way out of the owlery, past the Ravenclaw common room, and down towards Gryffindor tower.
They managed to slip past a group of Hufflepuff prefects that were patrolling the corridor on the sixth floor, and finally were standing in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, waiting to get into the common room.
"I can't believe we don't…"
"You recognize us you old bat!" Fred kicked impatiently at the stone wall, grimacing when he stubbed his toe.
"I can't let you in without the password. What if you'd Polyjuiced yourself…"
"So we get to wait here for an hour?"
"I'm sure Professor McGonagall would tell us…" Lee stopped when the twins gave him a look that said they didn't want to get into trouble.
He was not scared of McGonagall. But, as he reminded Fred multiple times this summer, they had better things to do than sit in detention. Well, unless it was earned. But for being in the owlery? It would be a new record, however. Mum would have my hide if I get detention before classes even start.
"Hello," a voice sounded from behind the friends, and they turned sharply, startled.
"Oh great," Fred muttered, watching as Neville Longbottom approached them. He was rubbish at remembering the password, and another member was added to their 'waiting group'.
"Do you know the password?" Lee asked hopefully.
"I actually do!" Neville sounded excited, but the other boys gave a look that clearly said they didn't believe him. "No, really, it's easy for me to remember this time…finally!"
"Well, go on!" George insisted. "Before she has a fit!"
"Mimbulus Mimbletonia," he said proudly. The fat lady gave him a reproachful look and reluctantly swung open.
"Thanks, Neville." Fred clapped him on the back before moving into the common room. George scooted in after him and they parted ways. He briefly wondered what Neville had been doing out of the tower, but shrugged it off, as it didn't really matter.
"This is going to be a…profitable year," Fred muttered as he pulled on his pajamas.
George smirked to himself. He sure hoped so.